Never Going Back
by Drawing-of-a-Key
Summary: Joey decides that he's been beaten by his father for the last time so he chooses to go stay with his sister Serenity and his mother in America for the summer. A few of his friends decide to go with him to keep him company, too including Yugi, Duke, Tea, T


Disclaimer: I do not own Yugioh! xD (It's probably a good thing too)

Content: Possibly some Yaoi coming up later between some characters (I'm not sure who yet, but I'll warn you when it comes), so we'll see. Also some language, and only a little violence if any.

I hope you like it . I'm not quite sure what I want this to unfold into yet.

* * *

Rain poured down from the grayingsky onto the city of Domino causing a young teenager's shirt to cling to his skin and look slightly see-through. His blonde hair was matted down also and fresh blood flowed off of his body from newly made cuts as he limped forward, leaning against the stone alleyway wall for support. The only light to guide him was that of the dimming street lights but otherwise all else was dark. And he had already hurt himself further by tripping over a curb while running. A part of him told him that he should go back home before anything else happened. 

_No, never again…_ the blonde silently decided. _I'm never going back…_

A small yet cozy store finally came into his sights as he limped forward towards it, his vision getting blurry.

"Joey!" He heard a voice call as a short teenager came running up to the blonde from out of the store. He could feel his body collapse into the smaller boy's arms and he saw two familiar violet eyes staring down into his chocolate ones worriedly.

"Yugi…" Joey murmured weakly before losing consciousness.

* * *

A small creak awoke the teenager who was now lying in some kind of bed. His eyes squinted at the figure coming through but he could not make out a person. His eyes were too heavy… it was hard to keep them open… so he let them close. He heard the figure approach him slowly, carefully and soon felt a warm touch to his hand sending a small shiver down his spine. Joey tried to hide it though. 

Joey also felt something else too on his forehead to cheek area. He couldn't tell if it was a hand but it in fact could've been a kiss. He tried once again to open his eyes a little bit but blurred vision still kept the figure's identity secret.

The person then rushed out of the room, closing the door quietly behind them. Although curious, Joey couldn't help letting his eyes close as fell back asleep.

* * *

Joey Wheeler blinked his eyes open slowly to find himself in a hospital room, Tea, Yugi, Tristan, Duke and Bakura beside him with Tea gripping onto his hand anxiously. 

"He's awake!" He heard a voice close to him exclaim. His vision was still a little bit blurry.

"Yeah obviously, Tea," he heard Tristan say dryly.

"Ugh… what happened?" Joey groaned, trying to remember the night before. His memory was a little hazy.

"We were hoping you could tell us," Duke admitted, "I saw you from the window of my shop running so I called Yugi since you were heading in that direction." Yugi remained silent off to the side and merely blinked when Duke said his name.

"Aw yeah, I kinda remember now…" Joey mused out-loud. He recalled the rain, the glass, the blood… bandages around his head and body also brought back terrifying memories of the night before.

"What happened, Joey!" Tea urged impatiently.

"Relax, Tea, I'm fine," Joey assured her through large gasps of breath. "My dad came home drunk again, and-" Joey brought in another loud breath of air to bide himself some more thinking time and then continued on slowly, "-And he beat me. So I ran, I was scared and angry. I didn't know what to do- my injuries hurt like hell… so I ran to find Yugi."

"It's a good thing Duke saw you, then. We were worried sick when we heard that you had been taken to the hospital!" Tea tightened her grip on his hand and they all sat in a biting silence for a few minutes.

"Yuge, are you okay?" Yugi finally looked at Joey, displayed a small smile and then nodded. "Thank, Yugi, for saving me."

"No problem, Joey," he finally spoke before looking away again.

"So you guys stayed here all night by me?"

"They wouldn't let us…" Tristan mumbled with disappointment clear in his voice.

"B-but I saw someone here last night!" Joey protested bitterly.

"Maybe it was a doctor or something. You could have been dreaming, you know." Duke suggested with a small shrug.

"No… dat can't be true…" Joey felt his mind start to ache so he lay back down.

"You should probably let him rest a little while longer," A doctor stated from the far back of the room. "The visiting hours are over, anyway."

"All right. Take care, Joey. We'll come back later." They all told him (even Yugi) as they hustled out the door with the doctor closing it behind them sharply.

Joey murmured back a small reply of goodbye and then closed his eyes softly. He wasn't really tired; in fact his mind was quite restless. His body was screaming for some rest but he couldn't get his mind off of what had all happened in the past 24 hours. He waited until the doctor left the room and then flicked his eyes open again.

"Who had come into his room last night? It wasn't a doctor; they weren't dressed in a white coat. It had been more of a dark color. He couldn't tell if it were a man or a woman either so it scared him a little that some stranger had been there.

It wasn't a dream… or at least he was pretty sure it wasn't. It had been so real; he had felt the touch of someone else's hand to his and even maybe a slight kiss to the cheek or something. It was hard to tell since his eyes had been squinting and his vision had still been hazed. Or maybe he was just wrong. Maybe Duke was right about it being a dream.

Joey's eyes started feeling tired and heavy and he soon drifted off to sleep.

* * *

"Yami?" The short teenager called nervously into a small golden upside down pyramid around his neck when no one was looking. 

"What's wrong, Yugi?" The spirit answered calmly. "Has something been troubling you?"

Yugi nodded. "It's Joey. He was beaten badly by his father again." The teen let out a heavy sigh. "I'm really worried about him, Yami. Hopefully his wounds aren't fatal."

"I'm sure he's going to be just fine, Yugi. Don't worry." The 5000-year-old Pharaoh looked away to hide his concern although it was no secret that he cared for all of Yugi's friends.

"I know but I'm just afraid that it's going to happen again!" Yugi exclaimed, raising his voice a little. "I don't want it to happen again!" Yami nodded and then put his hand on his hikari's shoulder.

"We won't let it happen again. Let's go… talk to Joey's father until we can visit him next, sound good?" Yugi's eyes widened.

"What do you plan to do to him, Pharaoh!" He asked anxiously.

"Whatever is needed to be done, Yugi, trust me," the spirit assured him calmly.

"All right, just be careful. This guy is obviously merciless when intoxicated. There's no telling what he'll do." Yami smiled.

"Don't worry, aibou, I'll protect you no matter what happens." And with that Yugi became Yami and started heading in the direction of the slums of city.

* * *

"Seto, what's wrong?" Mokuba Kaiba watched in confusion as his brother started acting strangely. He was actually going to leave work. Seto Kaiba never left work unless it was for school or some other important reason. 

"Nothing, Mokuba, relax," Seto replied coolly, as he headed towards the front doors of Kaiba Corp. Mokuba was right behind him. "I'll be back soon, I just have some business to take care of."

"What business!"

"Just look after things until I get back, okay?"

Mokuba sighed. "Fine… you could at least tell me where you're going though!" Seto smirked and then smiled at the younger Kaiba.

"Don't worry. I'll be fine."

"That doesn't answer my question, Seto!" But the older Kaiba brother was already out the door, stepping into his limo.


End file.
